Twin taboos: Sexual assault and child abuse once again in the national spotlight

22 December 2018

On the sixth anniversary of the 2012 gang rape and murder of Jyoti Singh, which sparked mass protests against misogyny across the whole of India, a three-year-old girl was hospitalised after allegedly being raped by a neighbor in Delhi. Elizabeth Chatterjee, Professor of Political Science at Queen Mary, said: “For too long, discussing sexual abuse has been taboo in India. The Nirbhaya case struck a chord because of the sheer savagery of the attack, and because Delhi’s middle classes could relate to Jyoti Singh: a student traveling back from watching 'Life of Pi' at one of the city’s many malls.” More »